Saif booked for assult: Case to come up on April 30

MUMBAI: A local court on Thursday framed charges against actor Saif Ali Khan and two others accused of assaulting a businessman at the Taj Mahal hotel in February 2012. Khan, Shakeel Ladak and Bilal Amrohi were present in court as charges were framed under sections 325 (assault) and 34(common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The matter will now be heard on April 30. They pleaded not guilty.

Saif was allegedly arrested after South African Iqbal Sharma had filed a complaint after the two got into a fight at the Wasabi restaurant at the Taj on February 22 that year. He was later released on bail after providing a surety of Rs, 15, 000. A chargesheet in the case was filed in December 2012.

Saif, 42, was accompanied by his wife Kareena Kapoor, her sister Karishma Kapoor, Malaika Arora Khan, Amrita Arora and some male friends at the hotel when the brawl broke out. According to police, when Sharma protested the raucous chatter of the actor and his friends, Saif allegedly threatened them and subsequently punched Sharma in the nose, fracturing it.

The NRI businessman had also accused Saif and his friends of hitting his father-in-law Raman Patel. However, Saif had maintained that Sharma made provocative statements and rather used abusive language against the women accompanying him and this led to the ruckus.